Fundamentals of Nursing, Concepts, Process and Practice, 12th edition

Published by Pearson (August 24, 2026) © 2027
  • Audrey T. Berman
  • Shirlee J. Snyder
  • Geralyn Frandsen

Title overview

For courses in nursing fundamentals.

Where nursing skills meet clinical judgment

Fundamentals of Nursing, Concepts, Process and Practice instills the modern nursing skills needed to be an effective member of collaborative healthcare teams. From management and communication to clinical judgment and assessment, the skills promote nursing excellence in an ever-evolving healthcare system.

The fully updated 12th Edition incorporates the Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (CJMM) and current theory and practices for nursing standards and clinical treatment. End-of-chapter questions help students apply the CJMM and prepare for the NextGen NCLEX-RN® exam. The MyLab for this title is now available with or without Skills for Mastery, offering a single place for skills practice and concept mastery.

Hallmark features of this title

Skills development

  • A step-by-step prentation of skills help students grasp techniques and practice sequences. Accompanying equipment lists, rationales, photos and illustrations drive home processes and procedures.
  • Nursing Care Plans with follow-questions provide guidance in best practices for nursing care.

Opportunities for analysis

  • Critical-Thinking Checkpoints consist of brief case studies and follow-up questions encouraging reflection and analysis.
  • Meeting the Standards end-of-unit activities prompt students to think critically about the themes and competencies from the unit and how they tie into nursing practice.
  • Concept Maps visually represent the nursing process, nursing care plans and conceptual relationships.

New and updated features of this title

New topics and perspectives

  • NEW: The Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (CJMM) is discussed in Unit 3 and incorporated into all nursing management content throughout the text.
  • UPDATED: Changes in healthcare practices were updated, especially with regard to treating individuals, families and communities for emerging conditions such as COVID-19.

Fully updated, reorganized content

  • NEW: Content was updated throughout to reflect changes to current nursing theory and practice, including updated ethical guidelines, modernized terminology and the latest nursing standards.
  • UPDATED: A new chapter organization streamlines content and enhances connections between related material, promoting comprehension and retention.

Enhanced learning aids

  • UPDATED: All evidence-based practice boxes were revised to include recent studies and topics relevant to today’s nursing environment.
  • UPDATED: At least 20% of end-of-chapter Test Your Knowledge questions are new in each chapter. All items reflect the CJMM and Next-Gen NCLEX-RN exam.

Key features

Features of MyLab Nursing for the 12th Edition

  • NEW: Animations help students visualize complex concepts such as system overviews and pathophysiology. With this context, students are better equipped to make sound clinical judgments.
  • UPDATED: Dynamic Study Modules pose a handful of questions and then respond to each student’s progress in real time. Learners deepen their grasp of concepts as they go.
  • REVISED: Practice tests with 4,000+ NCLEX®-style questions prepare students for success on the NextGen NCLEX-RN® exam.
  • REVISED: NextGen NCLEX practice cases help students confidently apply the Clinical Judgment Measure Model in preparation for the NextGen NCLEX-RN exam.
  • UPDATED: Decision-Making Cases give students practice analyzing clinical information and making important decisions at key moments in patient care scenarios.

Table of contents

UNIT 1: THE NATURE OF NURSING

  1. Historical and Contemporary Nursing Practice
  2. Evidence-Based Practice and Research in Nursing
  3. Legal Aspects of Nursing
  4. Values, Ethics, and Advocacy

UNIT 2: CONTEMPORARY HEALTHCARE

  1. Healthcare Delivery Systems
  2. Community-Based and Home Health Nursing
  3. Electronic Health Records and Information Technology

UNIT 3: APPLICATION OF CLINICAL JUDGMENT

  1. Development of Clinical Judgment in Client Care
  2. Forming the Client’s Care Hypothesis
  3. Refining Hypotheses, Generating Solutions, and Planning Nursing Care
  4. Taking Action and Evaluating Outcomes
  5. Documenting and Reporting

UNIT 4: INTEGRAL ASPECTS OF NURSING

  1. Caring
  2. Communication in Nursing
  3. Teaching and Learning in Nursing
  4. Leading, Managing, and Delegating

UNIT 5: HEALTH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

  1. Health Promotion, Wellness, and Illness
  2. Diversity and Inclusion in Nursing
  3. Complementary and Alternative Healing Modalities

UNIT 6: LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

  1. Concepts of Growth and Development
  2. Promoting Health from Conception Through Adolescence
  3. Promoting Health in Young and Middle-Aged Adults
  4. Promoting Health in Older Adults
  5. Promoting Family Health

UNIT 7: ASSESSING HEALTH

  1. Vital Signs
  2. Health Assessment
  3. Pain Assessment and Management

UNIT 8: INTEGRAL COMPONENTS OF CLIENT CARE

  1. Asepsis and Infection Prevention
  2. Safety
  3. Hygiene
  4. Diagnostic Testing
  5. Medication Administration
  6. Skin Integrity and Wound Care
  7. Perioperative Nursing

UNIT 9: PROMOTING PSYCHOSOCIAL HEALTH

  1. Sensory Perception
  2. Self-Concept
  3. Sexuality
  4. Spirituality
  5. Stress and Coping
  6. Loss, Grieving, and Death

UNIT 10: PROMOTING PHYSIOLOGIC HEALTH

  1. Movement, Positioning, and Mobility
  2. Sleep
  3. Nutrition
  4. Urinary Elimination
  5. Fecal Elimination
  6. Oxygenation
  7. Circulation
  8. Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid–Base Balance

Appendix A: Answers to Test Your Knowledge

Glossary

Author bios

About our authors

A San Francisco Bay Area native, Audrey Berman (she/her) received her BSN from the University of California–San Francisco and later returned to that campus to obtain her MS in physiologic nursing and her PhD in nursing. Her dissertation was entitled Sailing a Course Through Chemotherapy: The Experience of Women with Breast Cancer. She worked in oncology at Samuel Merritt Hospital prior to beginning her teaching career in the diploma program at Samuel Merritt Hospital School of Nursing in 1976. As a faculty member, she participated in the transition of that program into a baccalaureate degree and in the development of the Master of Science and Doctor of Nursing practice programs.

Over the years, she has taught a variety of medical–surgical nursing courses in the prelicensure programs on three campuses. She served as the dean of nursing at Samuel Merritt University from 2004 to 2019 and was the 2014–2016 president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing. She has served as a consultant to numerous nursing schools and is a reviewer for the Journal of Nursing Scholarship.

Dr. Berman has traveled extensively, visiting nursing and healthcare institutions in Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, the Soviet Union and Spain. She was a senior director of the Bay Area Tumor Institute and served three years as director of the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. She is a member of the American Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau and was a site visitor for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. She has twice participated as an NCLEX-RN® item writer for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. She has presented locally, nationally and internationally on topics related to nursing education, breast cancer and technology in healthcare.

She became a Virginia Henderson Fellow and received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Nursing Excellence and Leadership from Region 1, Sigma Theta Tau, in 2024. Dr. Berman authored the scripts for more than 35 nursing skills videotapes in the 1990s. She has been the first author of Fundamentals of Nursing and Skills in Clinical Nursing for the past 20 years.

Shirlee J. Snyder graduated from Columbia Hospital School of Nursing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and subsequently received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Because of an interest in cardiac nursing and teaching, she earned a Master of Science in nursing with a minor in cardiovascular clinical specialist and teaching from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

A move to California resulted in becoming a faculty member at Samuel Merritt Hospital School of Nursing in Oakland, California. Shirlee was fortunate to be involved in the phasing out of the diploma and ADN programs and development of a baccalaureate intercollegiate nursing program. She held numerous positions during her 15-year tenure at Samuel Merritt College, including curriculum coordinator, assistant director–instruction, dean of instruction and associate dean of the Intercollegiate Nursing Program. She is an associate professor alumnus at Samuel Merritt College. Her interest and experiences in nursing education resulted in Shirlee obtaining a Doctor of Education focused on curriculum and instruction from the University of San Francisco.

Dr. Snyder moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1990 and taught in the ADN program at Portland Community College for eight years. During this teaching experience, she presented locally and nationally on topics related to using multimedia in the classroom and promoting the success of students of diverse ethnic backgrounds and communities of color. Another career opportunity in 1998 led her to the Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Dr. Snyder was the nursing program director with responsibilities for the associate degree and practical nursing programs for five years. During this time, she coauthored the fifth edition of Kozier & Erb’s Techniques in Clinical Nursing with Audrey Berman.

In 2003, Dr. Snyder returned to baccalaureate nursing education. She embraced the opportunity to be one of the nursing faculty teaching the first nursing class in the baccalaureate nursing program at the first state college in Nevada, which opened in 2002. From 2008 to 2012, she was the dean of the School of Nursing at Nevada State College in Henderson, Nevada. She is currently retired.

Geralyn Frandsen (she/her) graduated in the last class from DePaul Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Maryville College. She attended Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, earning a Master of Science in nursing with specializations in community health and nursing education. Upon completion, she accepted a faculty position at her alma mater, Maryville College, which has since been renamed Maryville University. In 2003, she completed her doctorate in higher education and leadership at Saint Louis University. Her dissertation was Mentoring Nursing Faculty in Higher Education.

She was a tenured full professor and served as assistant director of the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing at Maryville. Her administrative responsibilities included the oversight of three pre-licensure tracks and the online Baccalaureate Completion program in the Robert E. and Joan Luttig Schoor Undergraduate Nursing Program. Currently, she is Professor Emeritus and continues to teach Nursing Care at the End-of-Life. She is passionate about nursing education and the care of clients at the end of life. When educating undergraduate and graduate students, she utilizes a variety of teaching strategies to engage her students. In 2007, she was awarded the Maryville University Faculty Award.

Dr. Frandsen has authored textbooks in pharmacology and nursing fundamentals. She has completed the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium train-the-trainer courses for advanced practice nurses and the Doctor of Nursing practice. She is passionate about end-of-life care and teaches a course to her undergraduate students. Dr. Frandsen is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and the American Nurses Association and serves as a site visitor for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. In 2021, she was awarded the Daisy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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